Grants & Scholarships

Bread & Roses makes grants to organizations that use community organizing to create sustainable social change.

What do we mean by community organizing?

We define community organizing as community-led collective action aimed at making changes in policies or practices at the institutional or systems level.

Examples of community organizing include:

Civil disobedience

Mass protest

Mobilizing community members to voice community concerns by attending meetings with or writing letters, sending emails, and making phone calls to public officials

Mobilizing community members to pressure individual public officials to change their position on an issue

Hosting town hall meetings and listening projects or using other methods to gather community input on a particular issue

Training community members to disrupt harmful practices that government or corporate entities are using to maintain the existing system

Building alternatives to existing government or corporate practices that are harmful and making those alternatives available in ways that have a measurable impact on the larger community

Providing space for political education that builds the leadership and skills of members of an affected community, enabling them to analyze harmful systems and develop strategies for change

Who is eligible to receive a grant?

Organizations must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible for a grant from Bread & Roses:

Must be located in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Camden counties

Must be designated by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization or have a fiscal sponsor that is designated by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization or have documentation of a pending 501(c)3 application with the IRS

Must be current with all grant progress reports from previous Bread & Roses grants

Must submit a complete application

Must be using community organizing to create sustainable social change

Additional eligibility criteria are listed within the description for each fund. Organizations can apply for a grant in every fund for which they are eligible. Organizations can receive up to $50,000 total in grants from Bread & Roses within a 12-month period.